


A New Circle

by enkelimagnus



Series: Character Explorations [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, Hodge wants the Circle to come back, Hodge-centric, Izzy Alec and Jace are mentionned, Pre-Canon, The Circle, Valentine Maryse and Jocelyn are mentionned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 02:55:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17316731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enkelimagnus/pseuds/enkelimagnus
Summary: Hodge Starkweather thinks about the good old days of the Circle and how Izzy could lead to its rebirth.





	A New Circle

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to @shadowhuntersloverforever for their help!

He misses Valentine and Jocelyn. He misses training and going on missions with them, and he misses the glory of serving under Valentine Morgenstern, the greatest leader the Shadow World had ever known. He can see it sometimes still, in Maryse and Robert’ eyes, even if they pretend they never felt it. 

Hodge doesn’t know what to think about the Lightwoods. They betrayed their oath, and they put the rune on his neck. They punished him as much as other members of the Clave punished him, the Herondales, the Penhallows. They’d punished him by not being punished. 

He sees them parading around the Institute so often. He can see the lack of circle rune on their necks. He can see the respect that the Clave and the rest of the Shadowhunters still give them, when Hodge is treated like a pariah, and it makes his blood boil. It makes him see red, he just wishes he could tear the mask of subordination off of their faces. 

Sometimes, he wishes to ruin the Lightwoods' pretty family by telling their children that their parents were monsters. But he doesn’t believe they were, himself. Most of the time, he wishes he could recount them the fierceness of Maryse Lightwood, how she took her beauty and passion and turned them into weapons. 

Instead of telling, he looks at Isabelle and teaches her those very things. Teaches her that every inch of her is a weapon, and he again wishes that weapon could be Valentine’s. 

He adds to the general culture of Shadowhunter disdain for Downworlders. He does his part for the Circle. A rebellion is never truly smothered, as long as the seed of it remains in the minds of its members. 

Isabelle is the easiest to work with, she’s eager and passionate. She wants to shine. She wants to be better. She’s fertile soil for the Circle to be reborn, and Hodge knows it. Izzy is a young Maryse. She has her potential for greatness. With luck, she could be the start of something new. 

If Valentine was watching from above, he wouldn't be disappointed in Hodge. He would be disappointed in Maryse for sure, for his favorite had forsaken him in such a way lying to herself and telling herself and others that the Circle was wrong. 

She never looks Hodge in the eye. She knows what she can see there. Herself, standing over a crowd, her face exalted. Speaking of the will of the Angel, and their blood duty to make sure demonic offspring disappeared from the surface of the Earth. 

The way men looked at her when she said those things, all of them, even Valentine who had had Jocelyn since his days at the Academy. The power Maryse held there. 

He knows she misses it the way he misses serving Valentine. 

Isabelle is twenty now, and she is lethal. Every idea he’s tried to plant in her is thriving. She has taken a bit of a liking for a certain Seelie, but Hodge doesn’t doubt it will cease eventually. Downworld lust is fairly common in young Shadowhunters. 

The exoticity of it all, and the thrill of danger are aphrodisiacs. As long as they don’t get pregnant, it is mostly fine. They all grow out of it. Finding a Shadowhunter spouse is pretty encouraged. If not presented as the only acceptable option. 

Two people are training in the training room when Hodge steps up to it, and he leans against one of the pillars, partially hidden, as he watches them. Alec Lightwood and Jace Wayland. Parabatai, of course, two young and intense Shadowhunters. 

Jace is strong and fast and remarkable. Alec is just as strong, just as fast, but there’s a lack of shine in the way he fights. When Jace adds a flourish every other step, or a back-flip or somersault, Alec just steps back and keeps himself focused. 

It’s interesting. Valentine used to be like Jace in the Academy, shining brighter than any other, with his big demonstrative gestures. Hodge himself was more of an Alec. Always by the leader’s side. Always in his shadow. 

He sees himself in the quiet young man. He sees how Alec could follow his sister and brother into a new era of the Circle. He sees how he could be as useful to them as Hodge was to Valentine and Maryse’ excellence. 

If only someone could tell them about the Circle, about the good they’d done. Hodge’s mouth opens and he is about to tell them when the searing pain on his neck comes back. He groans and stumbles back for a second. 

They’ll never know. It’s too bad. They would have been so wonderful, leading the new Circle, leading the Shadow World into a new revolution, a new dawn for the Shadowhunters.


End file.
